Games, Gimmick or Feature.

As a wanna be designer, Ive been informed to evaluate other games for the good and the bad. In a segment which I will do weekly if not more often then that will be to look over one of my favorite games and explain why I liked it. Why I disliked it. If I was in charge, how I would have made it better.

Game # 1
Fable 1 & 2. When you think of famous designers you think of a few big names, John Carmack, Cliffy B,Tim Sweeney, Sid Meyers, and then theres Peter Molyneux... Peter Molyneux is more then just a designer hes a visionary, but with his visions there needs to be restraint. The hype, the build up, the design process is unforgiving when your game falls soo terribly short of what you promised.
The Good.: Content, Experience System, Puzzles, Good and Bad system, epic story line.
The Bad: The Hype from Peter Molyneux, the Good and Bad System, Over powered combat abilities, the food system.

Explanation:

The Good - Dont get me wrong the bad list is extensive because of the Hype brought from Mr. Molyneux, you expected so much and it just fell short. All in all though Fable is an IP I love and I hope he makes more and more to finally reach his dream of the Butterfly Effect in video games.

The items, the puzzles, the quests, amount and quality of anything in these games were enjoyable, entertaining, and they truly made the game stand out. You had a tons of main story line quests but if you explored and did everything else in the game, you had many more hrs of fun with Fable. Getting a wife, tattoo's the talking doors, there was just so much to do. The experience system was unique that you gained 4 types of experience points. 1. Melee, 2. Ranged, 3. Magic, 4. General. Each one was used to upgrade only that specific type of abilities, the General could be mixed to augment any of the other three. This meant if you wanted to focus on Archery or Pistols you could, and you would lvl up your pistols with that experience. If you wanted to also get a spell to help change your fighting style up a little bit, the general orbs of Exp, would let you buy a spell to help out too. Only small discretion I had was that collecting glowing orbs of experience did kind of pull you out of the immersion of the game play. Why not just award them to the player and keep the game moving on?

Fable is really known for doing the Alignment system... The outcome of your actions in a quest would augment how people looked at you and actually the way you looked. Kick over the farmer's barrels while he was going pee, earn bad behavior points. Protect them, get Good points. This system was ingenious in design, but flawed in execution and I will go more into that later.Your actions affecting your character was an amazing feature.

The Story line of Fable has always been a big selling point for me. I cared for the characters i interacted with and genuinely had an interest in the arcs of the story. Fable 3 seems to me as if its going be grander by far more then I could expect, and I'm hoping it doesn't disappoint.
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The Bad:
Peter and his team talked about how cutting down a tree would cause this massive chain reaction later in the game that would be visibly noticeable. They talked about how everything you do mattered and changed your character. They went on and on and on. I know they are trying to sell the game, but at some point the hype becomes over hype.

The major issue with the game I had was the main selling point of the game I love so much. The good and bad system was flawed in a major way in Fable 1. Yes your character changed, yes people cowered, but at the end of the game when my Actions TRULY should matter. What did they present to you? A Simple choice of good or bad. ONLY that 1 choice mattered to alter the games ending. Save your Sister and forsake ultimate power or Forsake your sister for the ultimate power. In Fable 2 they actually got a bit better, you actions did have some effect on the world it self, people asked for autographs and or ran in terror, you got different emotes at different levels of good and bad. The Ending of the game actually had a few endings depending on if you chose, love greed, or a few others which I cant recall off the top of my head. Once again though all of the choices to get to that ending, didn't matter. All that mattered was that final choice.

The over powered combat abilities... if you played Fable, you can probably guess what ability im talking about. If you haven't well im not telling you... just kidding... Time Stop. Time Stop was a spell that slowed or stopped time for a duration depending on its lvl. This is such an amazingly broken ability because you can literally just slow time or what ever and run around hacking and slashing your way out of anything. Yes its pretty bad ass, but when you start to remove the danger from the game, it becomes a problem. No matter what skills I picked, I ALWAYS got time stop.

Last and the smallest concern I had was the food system. Eat certain foods and your character got fat or skinny based on what he ate and how often. Cool idea, but really the only things I can eat to lose weight is Tofu and like Lettuce? Everything else is fattening? I went through Fable 2 playing my Evil character and enjoying it all, until I took off his clothes to change a tattoo and outfit, to see he had a bigger keg then at a college frat house. This was just with food I found and used in combat. Trying to lose weight was impossible, since like only 2 vendors had Tofu and only like 1 piece of it at a time.


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Changes:

1. I mentioned the Experience Orbs, they are just a draw away from the immersion you could feel, be done with them and just award the 4 types of experience to the player.
2. A game with multiple personalities good, bad.. Needs to have a Neutral option, sometimes your don't wanna be the goody two shoes and or the evil master mind. Mr Molyneux, life isnt just Black & White®... (get it? HA!)
3. Story Endings. I want a lot of them. I want people I saved or let die to be in my ending, I want the mayor who's daughter I saved to come help me, or the town I stopped from burning to the ground to stand up and fight with me. I want something more then. Oh you beat the game, Here: Pick your Endings. Hogwash. I picked my ending by how i played your damn game. YOU give me the ending that goes along with the choices I made to get here.
4. Time Warp: Remove it.
5. Range Combat. steal Red Dead Redemption's gunslinger mode and slow down time when you draw your pistol but let the players shoot in like a First Person or over the Shoulder view. an Automatic Lock on is just meh.
6. More puzzles.

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Conclusion: I'm sure I can think of a few more things but it is 1:46 AM and I have a few questions to answer from some one I hope to call a friend some day, named Josh Hamrick. He worked on a little game you might of head... Halo: Reach?

So here it is:

Fable is a great series with all of its flaws and charms, Gimmicks or Features, I feel its a strong game and a very promising look for Fable 3. I just wish the Dev Team and Mr Molyneux would make my choices matter in the outcome of the game and not just let me chose  A B or C. When Im able to chose how the game ends based on that you make everything else in the game ive done insignificant and you belittle everything. Why is that 1 decision sooo important that every other ones wanes in the shadow of this one? Its a great game and I will always be an admirer of Mr. Molyneux. His visions reach for the moon and even though he comes short some times, he's at least among the stars.

-Michael Isaacs
Full Sail Student

Torrenting, Adverse effects or Free Publicity?

I dont condemn or condone torrents or illegally downloading of anything. Lets face it though, its not going away. Torrents are a way for people to get what you worked hard to create. It enrages some it annoys others, but what does it really do ?

People who torrent, are mostly people that are familiar with computers. You don't have the soccer mom going home to torrent your movie or game. Doesn't happen. What does happen, is that gamers or other computer literate people have a few things to deal with. For simplicity and as a medium I am most familiar with I will say games, but this is inter changeable with music or movies or any for of torrent-able material.

1. They are unsure if they want or would like your game.
2. They don't have the financial means to purchase it if they do.
3. They just don't wanna spend the money for what ever reason.

I think thats the 3 major base type of people that torrent games. Lets start with the first one and work through the rest.

1. If they are unsure of your game and if they want it or not, they will torrent it and play our game for free. The HORROR! I know, you didn't get that 50 bucks and if everyone did that you'd go broke. As a hopeful upcoming Game Designer , I don't truly understand the breadth and the impact it truly makes, and I wont try to pretend to. What this does do for you as a Designer / Development team. Is give your game to some one who was semi interested in it. Yes they didn't pay for it, but if your a decent Dev Team, this wont be your only game. Maybe he liked the game, and now hes interested in other games you made or will be making. You have just made a new follower / fan. Whats stopping him from just torrenting the rest of your games? Nothing, nothing except you, The midnight releases, and item giveaways and hype YOU build for the game makes the masses come out. I remember when I stood inline for Gears of War 2. There was a massive line of people there. In fact I know a handful of people there that were in line, that had already played and beaten Gears from torrenting it. Why were they there then? Collector's Edition, In game Items, T-shirt or code giveaways, just to support the developers they love. It happens, trust me as a Avid Game and as of right now I am more a gamer then I am a Designer, it happens a lot more then you think.
2. This is quite a bit simpler. If they don't have the cash, what makes you think they will buy your game anyway? With the economy they are not going to be able purchase your game in the first place. So that 60 bucks, you would not have seen anyways. Once again what torrenting does for you as a Dev team, is get your game into the hands of a possible fan, or follower who might not have had the funds at the time to buy your CURRENT game, but lets face it this isn't your last game hopefully. So maybe when they get some more cash when your next game comes out they will be able to purchase it.
3. These people aren't going to give you their parents hard earned money no matter what you do unless you crap out a golden egg. So you shouldn't be expecting cash from them anyways. There is no positive outlook on this one. Its just the lose lose situation.

What to take from all this, torrenting is illegal and still detrimental to the game community, but its not as horrible as people make it out to be, in my opinion at least. As I become closer to achieving my dream of being a game designer, my activity in this seedy area, dwindles drastically.

Keep making your games, but also worry about how purchasing your game can become more beneficial to the consumer then torrenting. If you want to be furious at something that takes away from your pockets, turn to Game Stop and the new trend setting into buying used games, where the developers don't see a penny of it, is more harmful then torrenting, in my opinion.

Just my thoughts on the matter.